control moves from the streets to the halls of congress today. senator dianne feinstein of california will introduce a bill banning assault weapons and high capacity ammunition clips. >> you need to do something about the guns. >> reporter: connecticut senators richard blumenthal and chris murphy are cosponsoring the bill. they say the shooting at sandy hook elementary school in newtown, connecticut proves there's a need to bran assault weapons. >> newton -- to ban assault weapons. >> newton changed things. >> reporter: but the nra says law abiding citizens need the same technology criminals have. >> we have the right to defend ourselves and our families with semiautomatic firearms technology. >> reporter: the nra has a lot of support here on capitol hill, especially in the house where many say an assault weapons ban has little chance of being passed. >> this is going to be a tough go. >> reporter: it may be tough to win over some of the public as

well. on wednesday, sheriffs in missouri, california, and texas announced they would not enforce new gun control laws such as an assault weapons ban. that i feel and can prove that are unconstitutional, we will not enforce those. >> reporter: president obama is sending vice president biden on the road to gather public support. >> we're growing to take it to the american people. >> reporter: the vice president's road trip begins tomorrow with a rally in virginia to promote gun control. susan mcginnis, cbs news, washington. the senate judiciary committee will start holding hearings on control proposals coming up next wednesday. stopping gun violence, the subject of a public meeting last night at friendly high school in fort washington. concerned parents and neighbors filled the auditorium. they were hoping to learn more about why 16-year-old marcus jones was shot and killed. the sophomore was gunned down saturday night leaving a birthday party that was well supervised. instead of providing new

information, though, investigators asked for help instead. >> we have the feeling that someone knows who shot and killed this young man. we have yet to have the identity of that person. we're here to say tonight we need people to call and give us anonymous information so we can solve this case. >> marcus jones is the fourth student in the county to be murdered this school year. the house has passed a bill which gives the country another four months before it risks default but the move comes with a catch. it requires the senate to come up with a budget, something it hasn't down in four years or lawmakers risk missing a paycheck. the white house says the president will sign the bill. now lawmakers must deal with another deadline. across the board spending cuts which were delayed in the fiscal cliff deal at the end of the year. they're scheduled to gin march 1. secretary of state hillary clinton had a rough day on capitol hill yesterday. during hearings in the house

and senate, republicans grilled secretary clinton about the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, lybia. she was accused of not doing enough to provide protection and was accused of misleading the public in the aftermath of the attack. mrs. clinton said she is focused on trying to fix what went wrong wrong. secretary clinton's replacement will begin his nomination process today. massachusetts senator john kerry will go before the senate foreign relations committee in the first step to become the next secretary of state. to prepare for his new role as senator, he will have to sell off some personal assets to avoid a conflict of interest. he has a net worth of more than 18 -- $184 million. leon panetta is expected to announce new rules today concerning women in combat. they'll soon be allowed to serve in the front line

infantry positions. until 2016 to allow women to e join combat positions. after that they'll have to seek special exceptions if they believe positions should remain closed to women. gary nurenberg has reaction from one local soldier. >> i had to step outside the class and kind of do a happy dance and go right back into training. >> reporter: army reserve staff sergeant jennifer hunt is one of four women who sued the military claiming its ban on women in combat is unconstitutional. >> because we need the most qualified people in the military to do the job, be it male or female. this is going to allow the service branches to staff the mission in the appropriate manner. >> reporter: military women found the ban simply unfair. >> totally frustrating. i was in the navy. i wanted heart and soul to go to sea. >> reporter: captain lori manning enlisted in the navy and asked to go to vietnam in 1969, wasn't allowed, had to

leave aircraft carriers at night. >> ridiculous. particularly when the dallas cowboy cheerleaders are allowed to stay overnight because they're not in the navy. women for the past ten years have in fact been in ground combat. >> reporter: it was an explosion like that one that gave sergeant hunt her shrapnel wounds and burns. 130 military men and women have been killed and 800 injured in iraq and afghanistan. the new policy opens 200,000 jobs to women from which they are currently excluded. physical standards will continue to apply and infantrymen for example carries a backpack that weighs 63 pounds. sometimes it weighs a hundred pounds. but manning says the decision is a recognition. >> yes, what you've done has been good. it's helped the country. let's make it official. let's open it all to you. i've already proved you can do it. >> defense secretary leon panetta is expected to make the formal announcement later today. cbs news pentagon correspondent david martin reports that the military branches will have until may to come up with plans

to make this happen and then we'll have two and a half years after that to implement them fully the end of 2015. gary nurenberg, wusa9. fire investigators are still searching for the cause of a house fire which killed a mother and daughter in falls church, virginia. laura schneider gardner was a teacher at gallaudet university. her daughter mary anne was a high school student on the gallaudet campus. both were hearing impaired. two dogs and eight cats also died in the blaze. still no word if the home was equipped with fire alarms for the hearing impaired. they say a plan to close 15 public schools in d.c. this year is unfair. so some attorneys and school activists are suing the d.c. government. they say it disproportion natalie affects black students. the group rallied yesterday outside city hall. donald temple is one of the attorneys involved in this lawsuit. >> the leaders of the city who occupy this building should take steps to ensure that there

is equality, fairness, and accountability in the decision- making process. >> the d.c. school chancellor says she wants to close the 15 schools because they're basically half empty. many of the schools are in anacostia where the enrollment is going down in the public schools and growing in the charter schools. the group suing the city says many of the parents are choosing these charter schools because the district is not putting enough resources into their kids' public schools. 21 degrees. so, yes, it is cold and wet outside. but just be thankful you don't live in the midwest or new england. a water main break in columbus, ohio turn add road into a sheet of ice. it's so cold in vermont, the lakes are steaming. the temperature in northern maine dropped to 36 degrees below zero. yes. a ski resort in new hampshire shut down because it was 40 below there. we're lucky. in chicago the water used to put out a fire turn add

warehouse into an ice house. it took more than 200 firefighters several hours to get the flames under control. as you can see all the water they sprayed on it creating an ice sculpture. officials are concerned parts of the building can fall under the weight of the house. basically the building is gutted. what you see is just th exterior frame. this was the biggest fire in the city in seven years. time now 4:38. light fluffy snow you will see as you peak out your front door. howard is back in two minutes and let us know if it's going to cause any major problems. >> governor martin o'malley says no new taxes but another maryland lawmaker is saying something quite different. >> wusa9 returns in two minutes.

welcome back. 4:40. almost 4:41 on this snowy thursday morning. just got a report from lusby, maryland, 3 inches of the very fluffy white stuff. about the same in point lookout. so southern maryland seems to be the winner right now. down south is where we're having school closings already coming in. this will pull out the next few hours. it will turn partly sunny, breezy today with a stray flurry or too. high temps upper 20s to 30 degrees. more snow possibly by tomorrow afternoon, evening. full forecast in the next five. right now monika with timesaver traffic. a dusting of snow. u.s. park police tell me -- i was just on the phone with them -- that along beach drive, beach drive itself is open but there's no access to the side roads between the zoo tunnel and the merge with rock creek parkway. rock creek parkway is open as well. keep that in mind for your travel plans. maybe use connecticut avenue

instead. i'll be back in a few minutes with more. >> thank you, monika. it is 4:42 and time for your first money segment of the morning. >> here's jessica with the headlines. >> good morning. wall street is saying thank you to congress? i know, seriously. stocks rose after the house passed a bill extending the u.s. debt limit. that allows the government to borrow enough money to avoid default for at least the next four months. strong earnings from i.b.m. and google. another five-year high for the dow up 67 points. the nasdaq was up by 10 and a half and the s&p 500 was also up by 2 and that hit a five- year high there. after the closing bell, apple reported earnings which were on target but sales missed the mark. apple says it sold 47.3 million iphones last quarter but believe it or not, that's not enough. the stock suffered recently too. investors worry the company has lost its edge as it tries to

compete with smartphones. maryland rest dents -- residents could soon pay more to fill up if mark miller has his way. he's proposing a hike in the gas tax. he says the money is needed for transportation projects. he believes his plan would raise $300 million every year. the mcrib sandwich and the dollar menu helped mcdonald's squeeze out a higher profit last quarter. the fast food chain -- it warns actually that sales this month are expected to drop because of increased competition from chains such as chipotle and panera. i had my annual mcrib last week. >> as i did, times three or four. not in one sitting but yes. >> how is your sodium level? >> way high. >> just drink water. >> okay, lots and lots of water. >> but you can get that from eating bacon. >> i'll have to try it. >> it's terrible but i absolutely love it. >> they're delicious. >> once in a while you can stray a little. >> how funny is this?

the hold saying is you are what you eat apparently. i'm a mcrib. exactly what are we all eating? >> a new report suggests the food we eat may not match the labels on the outside of the package. mike might not have had as much sodium as you thought. experts say food racials cannot be trust -- food labels cannot be trusted. >> we'll return in two minutes with that story and your weather first. stafford county and king george county schools in virginia are both closed today. we'll be right back.

welcome back. we have great pictures, great video to show you. this is out of lusby, maryland. three inches of just fluff, powder. really dry, troughy snow out there.

-- fluffy snow out there. even sperryville got 2isms of snow. -- 2 inches of snow. i want to take you toward prince frederick now. the cars are all covered up. this is an inch of snow in pasadena. want to show you video that kevin king shot this morning. that was out on wisconsin avenue here in northwest d.c. one thing i'm seeing also is -- do we have the video? one thing i'm seeing in my travels is that the streets that are treated are all nice and wet. this is up by the best buy in tenley town. the sides roads if they haven't been treated, that's where you'll run into the snow pack. but this is good crunchy snow. you get good grip on this sort of stuff. let's talk about the forecast with your day planner. it's not going to be a bad day. we'll get rid of the snow in the next couple of hours. already pulling out of the shenandoah valley. 28 by noon. 29 at 5:00. high around 30. other than a passing flurry, it's going to be a breezy day but the next couple of hours,

we're still dealing with the overnight or this morning's snowfall. you can see the back edge of it pulling away from sperryville. still a little bit here up to our north in montgomery county. got a report of half an inch in gaithersburg and to the south, a few breaks in calvert county but look at southern maryland still seeing the snow. again, it's been 2 to 3 inches down here. if you got maybe 4, that i think would be at the top of the scale. temps 18 in frederick right now and winchester. we have 20 in annapolis. to the south fredricksburg 24. but with temps in the teens, you get the understanding why in is such a nice dry, fluffy, powdery snow. right now 21 degrees. still some light snow at reagan national with a northeasterly wind at 8. so our windchills, they've been running in the teens this morning. another very cold morning. when you look at the futurecast, you're going to see this start to pull away. even by 8:00 could be light snow lingering in southern

maryland. this might be a little slow. this stuff will pull out quickly. we'll get into the middle of the day. a passing flurry or to can't be ruled out. we're looking at partly to mostly sunny, breezy. high temperatures around the 30- degree mark. tonight we start with some breaks but we are going to see clouds roll in tomorrow morning. temps in the teens and 20s. tomorrow a cloudy day, thickening clouds. look what happens by the afternoon. here we're at 6:00. this is snow developing here. this will be with us for part of the night. we may get an inch or two or three out of this before it pulls away by saturday morning. and a drier weekend. warming up next week. so yellow alert today for the early slick spots, 30. tomorrow we've got another yellow alert for the snow which is developing later on in the afternoon and at night, high 28. saturday 32 with the sunshine returning. sunday we'll get into the upper 30s. 42 monday. maybe an early flurry. look how much more mild. tuesday and wednesday should be above 50. let's go to monika samtani. main roads look fine.

it's the other roads that are troublesome. >> it is the other roads. smaller, lesser traveled roads. it's the neighborhood streets and also i was on the phone with park police this morning. they tell me that beach drive itself is okay, but all of the side roads along beach drive are shut down basically between the zoo tunnel and where it merges with the rock creek parkway which by the way is open as well. but i suggest that you go ahead and use connecticut avenue or even 16th street as your alternate route to beach drive. if you're one of those that needs to exit between those two points. so that's a big deal for you. just a light dusting of snow but you're going to find traffic slower than normal. you'll have to stick to the center of the road and some of the major thoroughfares as well that were just salted and treated. if you're planning to head over to the southbound side of i- 270, i would say that again use caution. be careful as you head even on the major thoroughfares and stick to the center of the road if you have to till the roads get treated. let's show you what it looks like here. here's a good perspective of

college park. it's still coming down a bit here as well. roads are wet and traffic luckily is still light. we'll go back over to the maps. traveling on the inbound side of i-66, our news producer says it's spotty at best coming in from centreville all the way to arlington. i'll be back with more in a few minutes. have you ever questioned if the food you bought is what the label says it is? well apparently you have good reason to question. experts say some of the foods you buy may not match the label. in fact, 67% of extra virgin olive oil tested at the grocery store is actually diluted with lower grade oils. other big culprits are fish, juice, and honey products. >> about 10% of the food you buy on the grocery shelf is probably adull rated. -- >> food costs cost.

try to stay away from cheaper foods because they pay be lower in quality. of all the things that get under our skin, small things, tiny things that can ruin your whole day, how would you like to be able to decompress after one of those things? this morning i'm joined by a happiness expert. i didn't know those existed but that's great. lisa cypress is here to talk before those top announces and tell us how to get over it and get on with our day. thanks for joining us. >> good morning, mike. thanks for having me. >> one of the major annoyances for anybody is you can get up at 4:00 in the morning and head to work and still get stuck in traffic. a lot of people can nash their teeth, grab the steering wheel, find other ways to destress. what's a good suggestion on how to do that? >> well, the first tool i would suggest is breathing. that when we become stressed, we actually hold our breath which is the opposite of what we need to do to help ourselves decompress. so when you're sitting in traffic and you're gripping

that steering wheel and wanting to curse the person in front of you, beside you and behind you, consider breathing. just pausing a minute, not worrying about what's going on out there, what somebody else is doing but worry about your breath. another thing is uplifting music. play some uplifting music. play a book on tape. sing. sing at the top of your lungs. become an opera star in your car. these are really simple interventions that can make that commute and that stress a lot more pleasant. >> how about another thing. oftentimes a lot of my friends will hold the door open for somebody as they wait to walk into a grocery store and the person walks by and can even possibly give them a dirty look, never mind say thank you. almost saying no thank you. >> these are part of the top announces that were found on the twitter scan. rude and disrespectful people. it happens. life is like that. not everybody is happy or not everybody is happy all the time. one of the things i like to tell people is simply let it go

and focus your attention somewhere else. maybe you practice gratitude in that moment. thank you that i'm in a good mood. >> here's one more occasion now. you go to your favorite restaurant, one of the places you look forward to all the time. you go and sit down whether at a table or bar and order your favorite meal and the person next to you is chewing with your mouth open and you keep hearing that smacking sound. it really can ruin your meal. >> it's an attention thing. wherever you place your attention, there you are. if we can bring ourselves back to the present moment and focus on what we're doing, our conversations with our friends and family, the people that we're sitting with, our own senses with the food and drink that's in front of us, we deemphasize the attention that the other person is causing by their noise. >> you put me in a much better mood, lisa. i appreciate your time this morning. thanks for getting up bright and early in los angeles. we appreciate your time. have a great day. >> you too, mike. thanks. >> don't you feel better already? 4:54. time for the question of the morning. >> certainly brightens your

day. next to actually being sick, what is the next most common reason employees call in sick? is it a, don't feel like going to work, b, doctor's appointment, or c, have to run errands. >> log on to the wusa9 facebook fan page. leave your response. we'll have the answer in our 6:00 show. keep it here on wusa9.

howard here. your weather first. 4:57. still dealing with some snow. some of the areas down south getting 2, 3-inch totals now in far southern maryland, even point lookout of 4 plus in some of these heavier bands. light, fluffy snow will end the next couple of hours. we'll turn partly sunny early this morning. by 8:00 24 with a high around

30 degrees. monika? on the northbound side of i- 95, we had a couple of issues early this morning. one near dumfries road. although it's been cleared, i can see that the traffic is heavy down there. once you're here in springfield, you just want to keep your distance and keep in mind the roads can be slippery, especially in your neighborhoods and lesser traveled roads. i'll be back with more at 5:01. >> thanks, monika. 21 degrees. not only tough on you, it can be tough on your car. >> everybody has advice on how to prepare for the cold. erica grow helps us sort through it all. >> reporter: this is the time of year when your car's weaknesses can suddenly present themselves. with temperatures in the teents over the past couple night -- teens over the past couple of nights, this man has seen cold weather woes at his shop. >> batteries tend to be weaker. coolant when it breaks down over time and with years, it can cause parts to break. >> reporter: fact or fiction?

you should let your car warm up before hitting the road on a cold morning? he says this is a fact since a cold engine doesn't perform well on the road. >> you don't want all the cold oil to go through the valves and everything when it's ice cold like that. you need to get it warmed out so it can thin out. >> reporter: a popular old wives tale is you need to have at least a quarter tank of gas to keep moisture in the tank from freezing. he says while a frozen tank is not a threat to your car, you should still fill her up on a regular basis. >> better to have it half full in case you get stranded and have to idle and have the heat turned on. you don't want to run out of gas when you need the heat the most. >> reporter: check all the fluids under the hood on a monthly basis. regular maintenance is the key to preventing problems down the road. good morning. thank you for watching wusa9 at 5:00 a.m. >> i'm mike hydeck. we're glad you're with us. if you're peaking outside, there is snowfall in and